The Duke abridged his life by his extreme intemperance in eating and drinking.  He had concealed, besides, that in falling from his horse he had burst a blood-vessel.  He threatened to dismiss any of his servants who should say that he had lost blood.  A number of plates were found in the ruelle of his bed after his death.  When he disclosed the accident it was too late to remedy it.  As far as could be judged his illness proceeded from gluttony, in consequence of which emetics were so frequently administered to him that they hastened his death.

He himself said to his confessor, the Pere de la Rue, “Ah, father, I am myself the cause of my death!”

He repented of it, but not until too late.

SECTION XIX.—­THE DUCHESSE DE BERRI.

My son loves his eldest daughter better than all the rest of his children, because he has had the care of her since she was seven years old.  She was at that time seized with an illness which the physicians did not know how to cure.  My son resolved to treat her in his own way.  He succeeded in restoring her to health, and from that moment his love seemed to increase with her years.  She was very badly educated, having been always left with femmes de chambre.  She is not very capricious, but she is haughty and absolute in all her wishes.

[Her pride led her into all sorts of follies.  She once went through Paris preceded by trumpets and drama; and on another occasion she appeared at the theatre under a canopy.  She received the Venetian Ambassador sitting in a chair elevated upon a sort of a platform.  This haughtiness, however, did not prevent her from keeping very bad company, and she would sometimes lay aside her singularities and break up her orgies to pass some holy days at the Carmelites.]

From the age of eight years she has had entirely her own way, so that it is not surprising she should be like a headstrong horse.  If she had been well brought up, she would have been a worthy character, for she has very good sense and a good natural disposition, and is not at all like her mother, to whom, although she was very severely treated, she always did her duty.  During her mother’s last illness, she watched her like a hired nurse.  If Madame de Berri had been surrounded by honest people, who thought more of her honour than of their own interest, she would have been a very admirable person.  She had excellent feelings; but as that old woman (Maintenon) once said, “bad company spoils good manners.”  To be pleasing she had only to speak, for she possessed natural eloquence, and could express herself very well.